Bob Gathany / The Huntsville TimesThe Owens Cross Roads Volunteer Fire Department east of Huntsville is one of seven finalists to win a new $170,000 pumper truck in an online contest. In the background is the 1968 Chevy fire truck that the department hopes to replace.

OWENS CROSS ROADS, AL -- The town of Owens Cross Roads waited 10 years for its first real fire engine.

Its latest fire truck could materialize virtually overnight -- and without costing a dime of tax money.

The Owens Cross Roads Volunteer Fire Department is a finalist to win a free commercial pumper valued at $170,000 in an online contest by fire truck manufacturer E-One.

The small department east of Huntsville is one of seven rural fire stations nationwide -- and the only one in the South -- competing for the pumper. Online votes will determine the winner.

At 3 p.m. that day, the winning department will be announced at the annual International Association of Fire Chiefs conference in Chicago. Owens Cross Roads Fire Chief Dan Kelly will be there for the big moment.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Kelly said Friday. "How many times do you have somebody willing to give you something like that free of charge?

"It just doesn't happen."

Owens Cross Roads was among about 600 small fire departments that submitted short essays to E-One earlier this year explaining why they deserve a free fire truck.

Kelly wrote about the late Robert M. Maples, one of the department's founding fathers and its assistant chief for more than half a century.

In 1958, Maples helped convert a hand-me-down gas tanker from Redstone Arsenal into a makeshift fire truck that protected Owens Cross Roads for 10 years. A decade later, he helped acquire the town's first true fire truck, a 500-gallon, front-mount pumper Chevrolet.

Old Engine 261 is no longer so reliable and recently failed a pump test.

Kelly said "Mr. Maples' engine" is still on backup duty at the Cave Spring Road station but needs to be replaced.

"We're where we're at today because of him," Kelly said. "If we do win this engine -- good Lord willing -- it would be dedicated to Mr. Maples and the six other founding members of the department."

He said the department's 20 volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians have asked everyone they know to vote in the contest. They have also solicited help from fire departments across Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina.

With an annual budget of just $45,500, this is the department's best chance of getting a top-of-the-line pumper truck, Kelly said.

"If we don't win," he said, "I don't see it happening any time in the future."

Owens Cross Roads was in third place in the online voting as of last week. The other finalists are in Leiters Ford, Ind.; Hines, Ore.; Luther, Okla.; Poverty Creek, Nev., Sedan, Kan.; and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.